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The Sengoku War
The Sengoku War, also known as the Sengoku Period (Japanese: 戦国時代 Sengoku Jidai) or the '''Warring States Period, '''is a period in feudal Japanese history ranging from 1467 to 1549. It was one of the greatest and longest wars ever fought. The Yukidan Conquest During the Warring States period, all clans in Japan where at war. The Ezoans took this opportunity to make a move. Yukida Kenji visited Date Masamune for a diplomatical conversation, asking whether or not he would be his subordinate. Masamune did not see why he would give up his power to a bigger kingdom, and Kenji answered that he would meet his demise if he would not do so. However mighty his army, he had not a single victory on his name tag, therefore nothing to threaten the Date warlord with. Thus, Masamune refused, and as predicted by Kenji, he met his demise, along with every single man in his army. Having conquered the province of Iwate in 1473, the Yukidan army proceded it's campaign to the Mogami domain, conquering the territory in less then a year. In the meanwhile battles were fought in the Hatakeyama domain, but after they heard of the Mogami clan's defeat, they conceded defeat as well. The Ashina clan did not deny subordination to the Yukida, as they feared to meet the same fate as the Date and the Mogami. After having conquered the entire Tohoku region, Kenji wanted to make an unequal alliance with the Takeda and the Hojo, as they both were powerful clans, and fearful towards the Yukida. The Hojo immediatly accepted the offer. However, they were at war with the Takeda, who would never want to make an alliance with them. At first Takeda Shingen refused the offer, which would mean risking utter destruction. But after seeing what had happened to the Date and the Mogami before, he chose to establish peace with the Hojo, and alliance with the Yukida. This establishment was made in 1479. The Hojo took care of the Ogigayatsu and the Yamanoushi in 1481, while befriending the Satomi and Shimosa clans, and by doing so he added the Kanto region to the Yukida domain, but Takeda Shingen had not yet managed to defeat his great historical rival, Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo province. So it came that the Hojo and the Ashina granted the Takeda military access, which would make it possible to attack the Uesugi from the north, which they would never expect. Because Kenshin was his greatest rival, Shingen refused the help Kenji offered, as to do it himself. However respecting that decision, Kenji insisted he would give some Yukidan weaponry, like serpentines and Sapporo flintlocks. Even with their element of surprise, together with the new weapons, it was not until 1485 that the Takeda triumphed over the Uesugi, Kenshin being killed personally by Shingen. In the meantime Kenji had forcefully conquered Sado island, for their gold, despite almost drowning in his own Ainu gold. He proceded to the Hokuriku region, where he was at war with the powerful Ikko-Ikki. As the revolutionary movement posessed powerful warrior monks, Kenji struggeled to defeat them. It was not before 1496 that Kenji defeated them. From there on he went on to the rest of the Hokuriku region, obliterating the clans that had ruled there until then. He had fully conquered Hokuriku in 1502. By the year of 1504, Koshin'etsu region was conquered by the Takeda, while Hojo were still fighting the Imagawa, the dominant clan in the Tokai region. In 1508, Hojo Ujimasa had eviscerated the Imagawa completely, but nothing more than that, for the Imagawa had not been the dominant clan of the region for some years. This would be the Oda, together with their companions the Tokugawa. They had extended to the south, reaching Kyoto by the end of 1510. It took Oda Nobunaga until 1522 to defeat the Ashikaga shogunate, which meant that he became the new Shogun of Japan, meaning that Kenji was too late. However, the Sengoku period was not over, as the other clans around the Kanto region still fought the newly established Oda shogunate. Thus, Kenji did not give up his desire to become Shogun. But just Sapporo flintlocks, mangonels, cannons and serpentines were not enough to defeat Nobunaga. Kenji designed a type of war-cart, armed with a traditional weapon from his homeland: the Yukidan Arbalest, an automatically reloading large crossbow. However powerful, it would not be able to pass through the gates of the Oda castle in Kyoto. Therefore Kenji laid a powerful siege on the castle in 1534, not daring to cause any harm to the city itself, as it was part of his own ancestry. But Nobunaga was stubborn, and managed to repel his agressors for over 2 years, when a Royal Assassin, who had come all the way from Sapporo, had sneaked into the castle, and killed the warlord. Nobunaga's successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, lead an attack outside the castle walls to avenge his former master. None of the belligerents was establishing victory, until general Toyotomi was impaled by an arrow from a war-cart, having underestimated the range of the weapon. As they learned the news, the armed forces withdrew, back into the castle, where a new successor was chosen. This came to be Tokugawa Ieyasu, who also lead an outside attack on the Yukida army in 1538. But in the meanwhile, Yukida soldiers had settled in the outskirts of the city, gaining popularity under the people, who would later establish small anti-Tokugawa groups, further eliminating the castles supplies. This resulted in rather poor conditions of the shogunal army. This lead to the Yukida forces being able to capture dozens of Tokugawa soldiers, instilling fear in the remaining army of the Shogun. But even as they wanted to give up, they would not be disloyal to their Shogun, who still wanted to fight off Kenji. But when the Yukida army managed to blow up some gates of the castle, they finally stormed the main keep, where Ieyasu resided. This resulted in a duel between the two rivals, concluding with Kenji's katana deep into the bowels of Ieyasu. The soldiers conceded their defeat, and so Kenji became the new Shogun of Japan in 1541. This fierce and unrelenting onslaught he had caused, instilled fear in the clans around Kanto, who did not dare to attack anymore. It lasted until 1549 that Kenji had unified entire Honshu, the main island of Japan, but he did not yet manage to set foot on Kyushu or Shikoku, home to the Fukaro. After settling strong defensive perimeters on the coast of the Inland Sea, he established peace in the empire, thereby concluding the Sengoku period. Section heading Write the second section of your page here.